CAPTIVE (The Survival Race, book 1) - CHAPTER 52

In last week's episode, Regan killed Noah. Max killed Addy. And Regan and Max are trying to kill each other. How will things end? Keep reading for an exciting conclusion! There are only 2 chapters left.

An abducted cop and a gladiator prisoner must learn to trust each other with their lives…and their hearts…to escape their alien captors.    

 

Catch up reading on CAPTIVE here for free: Chapter 1  Ch2  Ch3  Ch4  Ch5  Ch6  Ch7  Ch8  Ch 9  Chs10&11  Ch12  Ch13  Ch14  Ch15  Ch16  Ch17  Ch18  Ch19  Ch20  Ch21  Ch22  Chs23&24  Chs25&26  Ch27  Ch28  Ch29  Ch 30  Chs31&32  Chs33&34  Ch35  Ch36  Ch37  Ch38  Chs39&40  Chs41&42  Ch43  Ch44  Ch45  Ch46  Chs47&48  Ch49  Ch50  Ch51

 

CAPTIVE

Chapter Fifty-Two

Max didn’t know what tortured him more, Addy’s shocked expression, her body slumping in Regan’s arms, or the callous way the bastard tossed her aside.

It took all of Max’s strength to hide his emotion, turn his back on her, and run.

The battlefield had been leveled. Without Noah or Addy, Regan had no more leverage over him. Running faster through trees and brush, in and out of shadow and light, hurdling obstacles in his way, Max lured Regan farther into the woods, away from any chance of a Hyborean zapping them with shock rods or shooting them with tranquilizers.

How far should he run before facing Regan?

He hurdled a fallen log in his path. Either the pain was easier to ignore, or his bloodied feet were numb.

How would he kill Regan?

He had no weapons while Regan had a combat knife. Ten years younger, the kid was strong as a grizzly, had the advantage when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and possessed impressive grappling skills.

But his stamina was shit. Always had been. The fool never trained for endurance, believing his strength and fighting skills would prevail over his competitors. For the most part, he’d been right, but today would be a different story. Although shoeless, bruised, and forced to breathe through mouth instead of a broken nose, Max easily outpaced Regan for the fifteen or so minutes it took to lure him back to the vine rope.

Naturally, Regan would assume he was escaping to the refuge and wouldn’t stop chasing him for fear of punishment if he failed.

Max wouldn’t cross to the refuge without Addy and Noah. The plan was to reach the dense vegetation near the rope and take advantage of his opponent’s fatigue in a fight to the death. This time it would be Regan’s.

This time Max had something worth fighting for.

By the time he slaughtered Regan beyond reawakening, Addy and Noah would be alive. The Hyboreans would come searching for the gladiators, but the hovercraft wouldn’t be able to enter the dense vegetation. They’d have to park at the top of the cliff and go after him on foot. That’s where he’d be waiting for them with Regan’s flesh-eater. As soon as the hovercraft door sublimated, he’d storm the vehicle, kill the Hyboreans, and free his family.

Together they’d descend the very cliff Max was careening down now and cross the rope to freedom.

Though a sound plan, one problem remained. How the hell would he kill Regan without a weapon?

Not wanting to back himself into a corner or give Regan an opportunity to cut the vine rope, Max kept a good distance from the river. He pulled a long, flexible offshoot from a tree branch. The switch wasn’t the best weapon, but a few good swings would cut Regan’s skin open.

He pivoted around.

Regan jumped the last few feet from the rocky cliff. Seeing Max had stopped, Regan—sweat dripping and chest heaving—slowed his approach, the knife firmly in his sweaty grip.

Adrenaline spiked. Gladiator mode kicked into gear, annihilating all thoughts except for bloodshed. 

It was alpha versus alpha now battling in the ultimate survival race.

Max engaged his enemy.

* * *

Addy awoke to darkness and the smell of black licorice.

“You missed,” she whispered. She opened her eyes and focused on a hairy, gray Hyborean cradling a wiggling baby in the palm of his hand.

“Noah!” She scrambled to her feet, arms outstretched, ready to yank her child away from the monster. Surprisingly, Ferly Mor bent over and carefully handed her Noah, whom she covered with kisses and tears before pulling up his gown to check his belly. A thin coating that appeared like skin covered the knife wound. Was it some kind of bandage?

Did it matter? Her baby was alive. Thanks to Duncan’s help.

She hugged and kissed her son, ignoring that damn woodpecker drilling for breakfast in her head again. At least there was no pain from impalement and minimal dizziness. Perhaps she was getting used to this reawakening thing.

Her face didn’t hurt from Regan’s punch, and neither did her feet from the cuts and blisters. Ferly Mor had shod her in lightweight Hyborean sneakers and had dressed her in the same shorts and T-shirt she wore the first day she awoke in Duncan’s house.

If they weren’t wearing thermal suits, could they still be in Southland? How long had she been out? Where was Max?

As she twisted around to seek an observation wall, Ferly Mor’s fingers caught in her hair. She hadn’t realized until that moment he had been stroking her and purring. His genuine happiness filled the small space around her, suffocating her. She wiggled free from his grasp.

Through three transparent walls, she could see lush forest surrounding them. Ferly Mor’s vehicle hadn’t moved. There was still hope.

Ferly Mor cleaned up his surgical instruments.

“Ah, yer awake.” Duncan climbed up onto the table to give her a canteen of water. She drank deeply and then wiped the droplets from her mouth before they dripped on Noah. “How do ye fee—”

“How long have I been dead?” A few weeks ago that question would have sounded odd.

“Ten minutes perhaps.”

“Where’s Max?”

“I dinna ken. After bringing the bairn to my master, I went back and found ye with a...a...”

“Spear through my heart.” Like Max’s brother. Max hadn’t missed after all. It might have been gruesome, but he’d done what he’d promised. He got her to Noah the only way he knew how.

Duncan cleared his throat and harrumphed. “Yes, well, I found ye and brought ye here.”

Right. Now it was up to her to kill the beast and escape with their son. The room was about the size of the poacher’s caged vehicle, though it was enclosed all around. Ferly Mor’s hovercraft looked like a cross between a Hyborean cargo van and an ambulance. In opposite corners of the cargo area sat two small single-person cages she likened to cat carriers.

Duncan—faithful pet that he was—followed Ferly Mor everywhere, thus didn’t require a cage. “Are the carriers for me and Max, or for me and Regan?”

“They’re for the gladiators, lass. Ye’re no’ a threat.”

That’s what they think.

Ferly Mor slipped a sash made of soft material over her head and around her shoulders and then helped secure Noah into the baby sling—which would’ve been useful when running from poachers. Why hadn’t she thought to pack one? He exited the room into what appeared to be the vehicle’s cab.

“I’ve got to find Max.”

“Dinna fret. Regan will find him. Ye should rest now.”

“I can’t rest. Max needs me.”

“He’ll join us shortly. Ye’ll see.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” They haven’t come all this way just to return to HuBReC. “How many Hyboreans are on board?”

“’Tis only Ferly Mor.”

“How do I get off this thing?”

“Addy, ye’ve reawakened from death. Though Ferly Mor fixed ye up fine, ye still need time to rest and heal, lass.”

“I don’t have time. I have to save my family. Now where are the doors to this thing?”

Duncan sighed in resignation like he usually did when it came to dealing with her. “The back wall is a Hyborean door, as are the doors in the cab. I’m afraid ye canna open them.”

“What about the observation walls? Can I break them?”

“No, lass.”

“Dammit, Duncan. There has to be a way out.”

Faint purring drifted from the cab as if Ferly Mor focused his thoughts into his tech-ring rather than directing them to her. He was probably informing Rosalita that he found the escaped humans. While the Hyborean equivalent of a cell phone occupied him, she’d find a weapon and an escape route.

Wearing Noah on her chest, she slid off the surgery table and then searched the craft’s cargo area, opening and closing cabinet doors.

“Addy, stop this nonsense. Ye belong to Ferly Mor. Ye always have.”

“Just because he was tracking me doesn’t mean I belong to him.” Behind door number three, she found their backpacks.

“Aye, it does. Ye were his experiment, lass. Ferly Mor was studying the effects of different environments upon human twins.”

“Then Ferly Mor tagged the wrong person.” She rummaged through the gear for her knife. “I’m an only child.”

“One offspring was to be taken into captivity as a Hyborean pet. The other was to stay in the wild. That was you.”

“You’re confused. You must have perceived his experiment wrong. My mother never had twins.” No knife. If Ferly Mor gave Regan the flesh-eater, what happened to the other weapons?

“Aye, she did, lass. She believes your sister to have died at birth.”

She met Duncan’s gaze. Was he serious? “How would you know this?”

“I was there with Ferly Mor. ’Tis the truth,” he said after a long silence.

She wasn’t sure if she should believe him, but why would he lie? “I had a sister? Mom had a baby who died?”

“Aye, ye have a sister.”

Her poor mother. How horrible to believe she had lost a child. An ache grew in her heart remembering the painful loss of Noah for those bitter, dispiriting few moments. Tears stung her eyes. How could that alien beast have taken away a child with no concern for the grief and suffering it caused the mother? No wonder Mom lived with depression. No wonder she resented Addy. How could she look at her living daughter without thinking of the one she’d lost? Addy’s twin.

Thoughts swirled in her head as question upon question flooded her mind. Sorrow and anger and other emotions stormed within, rendering her powerless to concentrate, or to feel. Growing cold and numb, she sank into emotional quicksand. 

Get out of the quicksand, Dawson. Focus on the escape.

She closed her eyes for a long, deep cleansing breath, willing the calm to enter her soul. This revelation couldn’t suck her into an abyss. They were knocking on the refuge’s door. It would kill Max to be this close to freedom again and not attain it this time. She had to get him there at all costs. That meant ignoring the heartbreak and focusing on her task. Crisis training had taught her that much. If losing Max, Noah, and their freedom wasn’t a crisis, nothing was.

Behind the table and out of Ferly Mor’s view—in the event he returned—she dumped everything out of both backpacks, and then started filling Max’s with the essentials.

“What are ye doing?”

“We’re going to need supplies when we get to the refuge.”

“Did ye no’ hear me say ye have a sister?” His voice, raised in frustration, woke Noah. The baby fussed in her sling. “She’s here. On Hyborea.”

Sparing no time to stop, she stroked his fuzzy head while packing one-handed. “Why do you care so much whether or not I have a sister?” It’s not like Duncan was family.

I’ll make HuBReC your daughter’s living Hell, Regan had told Duncan. What if he hadn’t been referring to Tess. What if Regan had meant her?

The sewing kit slipped from her fingers and tumbled onto the floor. Her stomach tightened. “My mother thinks her baby died because that’s what you told her, isn’t it? You were there with her because you— You’re my father.”

He didn’t meet her eyes. It was all the answer she needed.  

Get out of the quicksand. Focus on the escape.

Ever since Addy could remember, she’d wished to have a relationship with her biological father. A wish she didn’t know had been granted over two months ago. On top of that, she had a twin sister. Tess! A painful ache tightened her chest, making breathing difficult. Why hadn’t he told her all this before? Why wait until now? What did he expect her to do, drop everything and run into his arms? Tell him she would stay? How could she after he’d betrayed her and her mother? He’d caused them so much anguish and grief.

Get out of the quicksand. Focus on the escape.

Inhaling calming breaths again, she retrieved the sewing kit, stuffed it into Max’s backpack, and zipped it up. “I have one question. Did you love my mom?”

“Yer mother was a beautiful young lassie. Full of life and passion. Ye remind me of her.”

If only he’d been describing the woman she knew. That would have been a beautiful thing to witness. “I asked if you loved her.”

“It doesna matter now.”

“It matters to me.”

Tears shone in his eyes. “Aye. I loved her.”

Her heart ached with sorrow and bitter joy, if that made any sense. Whether or not her mother had been tricked into conceiving twins for Ferly Mor’s experiment, Addy took small comfort knowing her mother and Duncan loved each other for a short time. It was also a relief to know she didn’t cause her mother’s lover to abandon her after the pregnancy. Duncan had to return to Hyborea with Ferly Mor and her twin.    

The craft moved, pitching Addy forward and pulling her thoughts from the quicksand. She braced herself so as not to crush Noah. Trees, vegetation, and the river blurred as the craft picked up speed. “He’s taking us back without Max.”

“No, lass. We’re headed downstream. Ferly Mor is searching for the alphas.”

She let out her breath. It was time to find a way out.

Addy entered the cab. Distracted by Ferly Mor behind his holographic driver’s console, she stumbled over a small drawstring pouch. Four people popped out of nowhere, startling her an instant before realizing they were holograms of her, Duncan, Regan, and Max projecting upward from the four chips that had slid out of the bag. Had the Hyborean shown these life-sized movie clips to the HGC agents to prove ownership of his humans? Was that why the HGC hadn’t pursued them?

Ferly Mor stroked her head, untroubled by her presence and unconcerned that she shrugged him off to crouch on the floor to search for a way out. Then again, perhaps he didn’t understand what she was doing, or if he did understand, believed she couldn’t escape.

Unsuccessful, she climbed carefully with Noah onto the passenger seat and then slid her hand along the transparent wall looking for a sublimation button or lever. The wall was smoother than Noah’s bottom.

Duncan placed the hologram chips back into the pouch and then tossed it onto the seat before joining her. “Ye must have questions, daughter. Do ye want to talk?”

“Save your breath, Duncan. You can’t manipulate me into staying.”

The vehicle slowed.

They stopped short of two exhausted alpha gladiators beating the crap out of each other precariously close to the edge of a familiar waterfall. One wrong move and they’d fall thirty-odd feet to the pool below where the vine rope awaited their crossing.

If she could sneak out behind Ferly Mor when he sublimated the driver-side door, she could flee down the steep rock and take Noah to the refuge.

Knowing Max, he’d dive off the cliff, grab hold of the rope, and meet her there. No one but Regan would be able to follow.

Her heart sped up. Think. Think.

Ferly Mor ducked into the cargo bay, and Addy scooped the hologram chips out of the pouch. Concealed in her fist, no images projected. All she had to do was place a chip in the sublimated vapor after Ferly Mor got out. The chip would trip the safety sensors, preventing it from solidifying fully. One small hole was all she needed to reopen the door.

Once outside, the big furry Hyborean would be quick to overheat in the tropical climate and would be forced to slow down. If this worked, she was moments away from freedom.

Steadying Noah in the sling, she carefully climbed off the seat, keeping a watchful eye on Ferly Mor. He opened a cabinet door she had previously found locked and retrieved a silver gun.

“What’s that?”

“’Tis a wee tranquilizer gun.”

The cargo hold’s rear wall sublimated. Dammit. She had been waiting on the wrong door.

Addy sprinted across the cargo hold and was halfway there when Ferly Mor disappeared through the vapor. It crackled as it began to solidify. She threw the hologram chips with a Hail Mary pass. They hit the floor, bounced, and slid like miniature hockey pucks into the white fog. The sensors registered the objects, and the phase transition halted.

Through the observation wall, she watched Ferly Mor round the van, oblivious to the small gaseous holes in the door.

She would have whooped with elation, but she didn’t want to draw Ferly Mor’s attention from the men grappling at the cliff’s edge.

“Bye, Duncan.” She headed for the opening.

“Addy, don’t leave me. Please. I love ye, lass. I’ve loved ye all yer life. Stay with me. Ferly Mor can’t give ye up. Ye were an unsanctioned abduction from Earth. He’d get into trouble if he gave ye away. We can be a family.”

“Max and Noah are my family.” She placed a finger, a fist, and then an arm through the gaseous opening until it opened wide enough for her whole body, and then she escaped into the summer heat. She pocketed the holograms to stop them from projecting their movies and catching Ferly Mor’s attention, and then crouched behind the hovercraft to spy beneath it.

Regan trapped Max on his back. His head hung over the cliff as he struggled to keep Regan’s knife from piercing his heart. If he rolled inches to the left, they’d plunge into the waterfall. Ferly Mor moved into position with his tranquilizer gun.

“Run, Addy!” Max yelled over the roar of the falls.

How, in the midst of battle, he knew her whereabouts was a mystery she’d contemplate after reaching freedom. Holding Noah and his sling tight to her breasts, she raced through brush and navigated the steep, rocky cliff Max and she had descended earlier.

A trigger’s snap echoed above her, drawing her attention to the two bodies plummeting over the waterfall. Her heart plummeted with them.

Ferly Mor’s perceived frustration rushed past her like air being sucked into a backdraft before exploding. It was as if he had taken a deep breath before swearing. Had he cursed because he missed his intended target, or because he lost his gladiators over the falls?

She raced down the slope. Ferly Mor would be right behind in unmitigated fury. Considering the dense vegetation and vines, he’d have to descend the terrain on foot, and his size and the climate were against him.

She slipped, sending a tumbling cascade of rocks to the talus below. Gasping, Addy continued down. Pressure swelled in her chest, constricting each beat as if Hyborean hands squeezed blood from her heart like water from a sponge.

Were her sutures splitting? Was it a heart attack?

Sweating profusely, sucking wind, and unable to bear the strain on her heart, she reached the bottom of the cliff. Through the trees, Max snagged their vine rope and hauled himself onto the riverbank. Regan was a shadow behind him, knife blade gripped between his teeth.

Addy retrieved the hologram chips from her pocket and threw them into the forest, hoping the images would fool Ferly Mor and gain them a few precious minutes to cross.

She took in a deep breath and made her way to the vine rope.

At the riverbank, the two beaten, bloodied, and drenched gladiators circled each other, hunched over in exhaustion. How did either man have the strength or fortitude to keep fighting?

Regan lunged with the flesh-eater. Max deflected the blade, but Regan’s shoulder rammed his chest, knocking him flat on his back, pinned.

Max grunted, struggling against Regan and the knife.

Quickly, Addy placed Noah’s sling in the ferns where she had made the vine rope earlier that day and grabbed the only weapon she could find. She snuck behind Regan, threw the vine around his throat, and yanked it back with the strength of a pissed-off grizzly protecting her cub.

“Hello, pet,” she said with icy derision. Unlike the time she’d tried to poison him, there was no fear. There was no guilt or remorse. The bastard was going to die at her hands, and she was glad.

Regan twisted around. He swung the knife wildly. Max redirected the arching blow into Regan’s chest.

Regan choked.

He wheezed.

His muscles slackened.

His body slumped to the ground, pulling her off balance, but she refused to let go of the vine. She pulled it tighter. He had died after she’d poisoned him in HuBReC but came back to life. This time, she’d make sure he stayed dead. She had to prevent him from ever coming after her family again. Hot tears blurred her vision as she strangled him with all of her strength.

“Let go, Addy,” came Max’s gentle voice. Somehow, he had gotten off the ground and was kneeling beside her, peeling her fingers from the bloody grip she held on the vine. “He’s dead.”

* * *

“But that’s not enough.” Addy turned to him with tearful, red eyes. She sniffled and wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing blood under her nose. “We have to make sure he never comes back to life. We have to get rid of his body.” Her gaze darted around their surroundings. She looked crazed. Manic. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. This wasn’t good.

“We have to throw him in the river.” She jumped to her feet, pulling on Regan’s arms in an attempt to drag his body. “Help me, Max.”

“Leave him. Ferly Mor will be here any second. We have to cross the river now.”

“But—”

“Addy.” He took her soft hand in his. His gaze held hers. “Is Regan’s ultimortem more important than saving our child?”

Her pupils dilated. She blinked as if waking from a nightmare. “No.”

Relief flooded him. She would be okay. “Come on.” He helped her to the ferns where she retrieved Noah in his sling. She cradled and kissed his head. Joy surged through his beaten body at the sight of his son, alive and well and with little awkward limbs moving randomly in his momma’s arms.

But this wasn’t reunion time. “We have to cross before Ferly Mor—”

Rustling leaves drew his attention to the Hyborean aiming his tranquilizer gun.

“Duck, Addy.” Max dove and rolled to Regan, yanked the flesh-eater from his lifeless body, and heaved it.

Ferly Mor pulled the trigger an instant before the knife penetrated his hand. The gun fell on the ground...too late. A tranq dart embedded into Addy’s neck.

Dammit, why hadn’t Max pushed her out of the way?

Ferly Mor’s target was textbook. Head and neck hits resulted in almost instantaneous unconsciousness. She had thirty seconds before her entire body shut down. Her eyes clouded, and her lids drooped.

Stumbling forward, she reached for a low hanging branch. The branch snapped, but Max caught her before she fell, and eased her and Noah to the ground. “Don’t be afraid.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re going to sleep now. It’ll be okay. Trust me.”

“I do.”

Ferly Mor cautiously approached them. He had pulled the knife from his hand and retrieved the tranquilizer gun.

Max grabbed Addy’s broken branch, cocked it at his shoulder, and jumped between her and the alien. “You’re not taking her back, you bastard.”

Ferly Mor sent him calming thoughts as he fiddled with his tranquilizer gun. He seemed to be having a hard time of it since he still held the knife in his other hand. What was the alien doing? Recalibrating the drug for a heavier body?

Fuck that.

Max charged. Each swing of the club connected with the Hyborean’s legs, gut, arms. The gun sailed out of his leathery fingers.

With the knife clutched in front of him, Ferly Mor backed away. The stupid alien should have kept the weapon moving, but he wasn’t a fighter. He was a doctor.

Soon he’d be a dead doctor.

One swing knocked the knife to their feet. Another swing shattered the Hyborean’s knee. Ferly Mor buckled and fell, but Max didn’t stop. He clubbed him again and again, beating the fucking life out of the Hyborean.

A trigger snapped. A needle pricked his lower calf. He pivoted around and saw Duncan’s gun hand, extended in front of him, shaking uncontrollably. “I’m sorry, lad. But I canna allow ye to kill my master.”

Max plucked the dart from his calf. He snatched up the flesh-eater and slashed his leg, hoping some of the drug would drain out with his blood. He had one minute, tops.

Shit.

Abandoning the Hyborean, he ran to his family, slipped Noah’s sling over his head, and then picked up Addy and carried her to the bank where he yanked the vine rope from the sapling and tied it around his chest beneath his armpits. Holding tightly the two people who gave his life meaning, Max plunged into the cold river.

He struggled to keep three heads above water as the rushing current swept them all downriver and across.

On the verge of white water, fierce undercurrents sucked at his legs. Pins and needles anesthetized his body, whether from the cold water or the tranquilizer, he wasn’t sure and didn’t give a damn. He had to get them onshore before his arms went numb. 

Noah was easy. One-handed, Max half placed, half tossed the baby safely into the mud. Addy’s dead weight proved more difficult. Hugging her with one arm, he kicked his legs and crawled his way up the bank.

Duncan called out to him from the opposite bank, but he couldn’t comprehend the words. A fog seeped into his head.

Don’t black out now. You’re an arm’s length from freedom. With his last gram of strength, he pulled his hips from the river and collapsed with Addy on the muddy bank of the refuge.

Pain receded as Max floated into a dark abyss.

 

#

Are they safe? Will Ferly Mor reawakened Regan? Will he go after them in the refuge or are Max, Addy and Noah safe in the refuge? Find out next week in Captive's conclusion (Chapter 53) or read the end of the story now at your favorite retailers.

 

K.M. Fawcett

Romance with a rebel heart  

www.kmfawcett.com